Category: women

What is your
reaction when you are paid a compliment?
Do you push it away by saying something negative, do you feel your whole
body stiffen and find it hard to make eye contact. Do you even hear it?

Often our responses to being complimented are because we have a negative self view. As a nation, we find it hard to see ourselves positively and to own it at the risk of being seen as big-headed and arrogant and so we find it hard to acknowledge our own strengths, abilities, looks or intelligence. We want to shrink and hide away instead of hearing the compliment and taking it in – and feeling good about ourselves. I remember being like this through my teenage into my late twenties/early thirties. I had to learn to firstly hear it, then accept it without pushing it away.

A compliment is like someone giving you a gift. When you negate it or bat it away, you are pushing back the gift and saying you can’t accept it. Think about how you feel when you tell someone something you appreciate about them – ‘You look lovely today’ or ‘I appreciate your time’ and they bat it back to you – does it feel good? No.

When you give
another person a compliment and they smile and say “Thank you, that makes
me feel really good”, it feels good to you too doesn’t it? It’s an exchange and you both feel a
connection in that moment.

Celebrate National Compliment Day and when you notice something you like about someone, tell them. If you receive a compliment today – breathe, pause, hear it, let it in and say “Thank you”. It may be difficult at first – you don’t have to believe it, just hear it. Over time, the more you practice, the better at receiving you will become and the better you will feel about yourself.

Like this:

I recently did a talk at an event where I shared my story of how I made a mistake and got myself into a very difficult personal relationship. The mistake was that I had not listened to my higher self, my intuition, ie my feelings, and I had carried on, logically finding my way through the fog that uncertainty brings. The choice I needed to make in order to bring an end to this relationship was such that I knew others would be hurt. I avoided making that choice for quite some time.

During this unahappy period of my life I had kept it a secret, I hadn’t spoken to anyone about it. This was partly due to loyalty but a big part of it was feeling stupid, as in “I should have known … seen the signs … not let myself be x y or z”.

After the talk, I had a conversation with someone who had been in a similar situation and who also had found it difficult to speak to anyone about it. “I didn’t even tell my Dad”.

It’s hard to admit that we are in emotional pain or in a situation which we perceive as our own fault sometimes. When we do take courage and share ourselves with another, we can begin to come back to ourselves and clear the fog by identifying our feelings and our true selves..

Whether it is a close friend, a stranger or a professional, there is an incredible power in hearing ourselves speak of our circumstances, feelings or fears to another.

There is nothing unwell or wrong about asking for help. The recent statements by our HRH The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry raising awareness of the issues around mental health have highlighted that it can be an issue for anyone, even the seemingly privileged.

Getting to therapy can be hard, picking up the phone and saying “I have a problem and I need help” is in some ways the hardest bit. People who do that are well in that they have admitted it to themselves, taken the brave step of sharing it with another and are on the first step to recovery.

Like this:

I have just returned from a fantastic five days in the beautiful Devon countryside where I followed one of my passions, dressmaking. I was learning pattern cutting – a method by which you can design your own clothes and make a pattern to your own measurements, instead of making something from a bought pattern and then finding that it doesn’t fit properly.

One of the first things we had to do was strip down to our undergarments and measure each other in pairs. The stripping down was reasonably ok because most women are used to being at the swimming pool or gym and seeing other women getting undressed, and actually when faced with the task we just got on with it. So, a bit daunting because we had only just met but not too scary.

Once we were measuring each other I noticed all the negative self-talk going around the room: “my boobs are too big” or “I have a saggy this that or the other”. It was quite noticeable and continued throughout the remainder of the course as we made our patters and, ultimately, our bespoke dresses.

I have been aware of my own negative self-talk over the years but I found myself shocked by what I was hearing. I guess it was because we were seven women, in a fairly confined space, looking at ourselves closely and it was relentless!

The facilitator of the course said that her son had been in a workshop previously and had noticed this too and had asked “Mum, do women do this all the time, ‘cos a room full of guys wouldn’t do that?”

Why ARE we so hard on ourselves. Why DO we find it so hard to accept ourselves as we are? It’s absolutely ok to want to improve ourselves, I have no problem with that, but why do we have to be so harsh on ourselves whilst we do it?

Are we critical of each other and therefore critical of ourselves. Is the negative we see in others a projection of what we dislike about ourselves?

Let us women come together and say “I am OK, I am doing the best I can, I am enough right now and I am just unfinished.” OR let’s really go for it and say “I am beautiful, gorgeous and talented.”- who are you not to be?

Like this:

Today as my young client left, she took the band off her hair and let a glorious mane of waves fall to her sun kissed shoulders. I was struck by her beauty.

We have been working on her inner confidence and self-esteem over the last few weeks and in those weeks I have seen a different girl Still very beautiful but not shining.

Today she shone. I told her how I saw her as a beautiful young woman. She told me I was making her blush. Work for next time I logged in my mind.

After she had gone, I thought to myself “it just breaks my heart when I see beautiful young women and they don’t see themselves …… yet”

Sometimes we are give what we need to learn in seeing it in others and I remembered the negative self talk I need to drop. A life’s work. Sometimes progress is slow and painful but it is always worth it. As are we. We are all worth it. We are all good enough.

Like this:

Dawn Alba and I got together last Friday to trial our event later this month.

With wigs by Dawn and make-up by yours truly we spent the morning working on an idea we had been thinking about for some time. Now that we had found a venue which could work for us it was time to get going.

I know, and have lost, many girlfriends who have lost their hair during treatment for cancer and have wanted to do something to raise money for the fantastic work done and support given by Macmillan Cancer Support. When Dawn and I met a few months ago and she told me about her new wig business, the opportunity presented itself.

It was quite scary seeing myself with long blonde hair – and I’m not sure about the lighter bob – it takes a bit of getting used to. But in the spirit of walking the talk and getting out of my comfort zone we took some photos to show that, actually, its really fun to do.

Afterall, the great thing is that if you don’t like your hair and make-up, you can just take it off!